Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Recap of the Final Days of National Poetry Month at Wild Rose Reader

WIN A CHILDREN’S POETRY BOOK!!!

REMINDER: Leave a comment at any one of my posts at Wild Rose Reader dated April 27th through April 30th and I will include your name in a drawing to win a children’s poetry book. The drawing will take place tomorrow, May 1, 2008. I have two poetry books as prizes. If you leave/have left a comment at Wild Rose Reader during these final days of National Poetry Month, you may win one of the following poetry books:



THE LLAMA WHO HAD NO PAJAMA:
100 Favorite Poems
Written by Mary Ann Hoberman
Illustrated by Betty Fraser
(This book was signed by the author.)


IN FOR WINTER, OUT FOR SPRING
Written by Arnold Adoff
illustrated by Jerry Pinkney



Recap of the Final Days of National Poetry Month at Wild Rose Reader

April 27--Another Ring/Drum/Blanket Poem
April 28--Earthworms: An Animal Mask Poem
April 29--Poems of Apology
April 30--Here is a Poem About...#3 and Food for Thought: Three Original Poems


Elsewhere in the Kidlitosphere

Poetry in the Classroom at The Miss Rumphius Effect
Sunday:
America at War
Monday: Who Was the Woman Who Wore the Hat?
Tuesday: Voices from Other Lands
Wednesday: Quiet, Little Books

Bloggers Who Are Posting Original Poems Every Day during National Poetry Month
Cloudscome
at A Wrung Sponge
Gregory K. at GottaBook
Jone (aka MsMac) at Deo Writer

Food for Thought: Three Original Poems

Here are three poems I’ve written for Tricia’s Monday Poetry Stretch--Food for Thought.

Watermelon slice
I sink my teeth in
Savoring succulent flesh
Juice dribbling down my chin
Eating my way down
To a broad green grin


On my plate
a mountain of spaghetti
strewn with meatball boulders
oozing tomato lava
soon to be blanketed in a blizzard of cheese…

pass the Romano, please!



I bet you didn’t know that Jack--of beanstalk fame--used some of the gold he stole from the giant to open a bistro in Fairy Tale Town! Jack would like to describe one of the blue plate specials he serves daily.

Our fresh-picked beans are GIANT-size.
They come with golden eggs and fries,
Three bowls of moles and scaly skinks,
And fee-fi-fo-fum sausage links.

Here Is a Poem About...#3

On Saturday, in my post I Am Looking for a Poem About…#3, I invited blog readers to ask me to find a children’s poem on a specific topic or subject for them. Cheryl wrote: “I'd like to read a poem about a child flying. Not flying in an airplane, but just freely through the air/clouds. Do you know of one?”

Lines of a particular poem began running through my head--but I couldn’t remember the author or the title of it. After looking through a couple dozen of my children’s poetry books, I have found the poem, I Can Fly. It was written by Felice Holman and first published in her poetry book At the Top of My Voice (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970). The book was illustrated by Edward Gorey.


The poem can also be found on page 31 of the following book:

THE 20th CENTURY CHILDREN'S POETRY TREASURY
Selected by Jack Prelutsky
Illustrated by Meilo So
Alfred A. Knopf, 1999


Here is an excerpt from Felice Holman’s I Can Fly:

I can fly, of course,
Very low,
Not fast,
Rather slow.
I spread my arms like wings,
Lean on the wind,
And my body zings
About.
Nothing showy--

A few loops
And turns...

Cheryl, I hope Holman’s poem fits the bill!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Poems of Apology

Those of you who read my Interview with Joyce Sidman may remember that Joyce and I invited people to write poems of apology as Joyce did for her award-winning collection of poems This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness. I even posted a second invitation to blog readers.


Gregory K. of GottaBook took the poem of apology challenge and whipped up an original for us.

A Poem of Apology
By Gergory K. Pincus


I am so sorry I told you

There was no more chocolate

When you asked

So sweetly.

There was one piece,

Dark and rich

Filled with chocolate creme.

Your favorite.

My favorite, too

With a cup of coffee and quiet.

I'm sorry I lied...

But it was delicious.


Now...go get thee to a candy store!!!

******************************


Jone of Check It Out has an original apology poem entitled A Poem Regarding My Absence at a Book Challenge Hearing.

Jone also posted some of the Apology Poems her students wrote.

Check out Poetry Stretch Results--Poems of Apology at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Cloudscome wrote a poem of apology for a librarian.

Edited to Add on April 30, 2008:
Tricia posted her Food Poem of Apology
at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Earthworms: An Animal Mask Poem

Last year, before the start of National Poetry Month, I decided that I would post a poem every day during April--just as Gregory K. of GottaBook was planning to do. Then I began to worry that I wouldn't be able to write thirty original poems in thirty days. I began looking through folders of poems I had written years ago. I hoped to find some poems that I wouldn't be embarrassed to post at Wild Rose Reader.

What I hadn't realized until then was the number of animal mask poems that I had written over the years. That's when I got the idea of working on a collection of poems told from the perspective of different animals--including frogs, a snake, a lion, a grizzly bear, a spider, a butterfly pupa, and earthworms. I've already posted some of those poems at Wild Rose Reader.

One thing I often find problematic when writing poems is coming up with a clever or surprising ending. I'm always disappointed when a poem I'm reading builds up expectations and then falls flat in the last few lines.

I wrote most of this earthworm poem months ago. Actually, the poem nearly wrote itself--but I just couldn't come up with an ending that worked. I thought I would revisit that poem today...and finish it. I'm not sure that I won't rewrite the ending--but here it is in its "second draft" stage.


Earthworms
by Elaine Magliaro

We have…

No bones
No shells
No teeth, as well—
No lips, no beaks
No chins, no cheeks
No horns, no claws
No talons, jaws
No legs, no wings…
No fancy things
Like fins or scales
Or fluffy tails,
Or blubber like the big blue whales.

We’re soft.

We’re small…
Not much at all.
We’re nondescript—
But we’re equipped
To eat your dirt.
It doesn’t hurt
Us...not a bit.
In fact,
We like the taste of it.
We toil in soil.
We’ve got true grit!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Another Ring/Drum/Blanket Poem

NOTE: Read my Interview with Janet Wong for information about ring/drum/blanket poems.

The following ring/drum/blanket poem was written by Melina Ragazas, a friend of Janet Wong.

Impressions of Crete
By Melina Ragazas

Lazy palms sway above,
Laughter bellows below,
A tuberleki drum,
Beats in the corner alcove.

Wooden chairs squeak.
Paint-peeling tables parade,
Blankets of vine leaves serving,
Fried fish of scorched jade.
Or curly calamari rings,
Spilling off in a raid.

Elderly walls cradle the honeyed air,
Silently watching their new friends.
All seafood-grazing in this magic square,
Until the silvery half-moon bends.


Here is a link to my post Ring/Drum/Blanket Poems Redux where you can read several more poems written by Janet Wong, fellow bloggers, participants in a poetry workshop that Janet presented, and me.


Poems of Apology: An Open Invitation

The invitation is still open to write a poem of apology. I'll post the "sorry" poems before the end of April. Gregory K. of GottaBook has already submitted his poem to Wild Rose Reader.

Read my Interview with Joyce Sidman and A Poem of Apology for information about and examples of poems of apology.

Week Four of NaPoMo: And the Winners Are...

I talked about my plans for National Poetry Month at Wild Rose Reader in an earlier post. One thing I will be doing is giving away children’s poetry books to blog visitors who leave comments at my posts during the month of April. The final book drawing will take place on Thursday, May 1, 2008.


And Today's Winners Are...

Tricia of the Miss Rumphius Effect, Gail Maki Wilson of Through the Studio Door, and Coloreader! (Tricia won a book last week, too.)


Tricia has won Oh Grow Up!: Poems to Help You Survive Parents, Chores, School and Other Afflictions
by Florence Parry Heide Pierce and Roxanne Heide Pierce.

Gail has won Moon, Have You Met My Mother:
The Collected Poems of Karla Kuskin
.
Coloreader has won
Big Talk: Poems for Four Voices by Paul Fleischman.


Note to Gail and Coloreader: Please email me your addresses so I can send you your prizes.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Recap of the Fourth Week of National Poetry Month at Wild Rose Reader

WIN A CHILDREN’S POETRY BOOK!!!

REMINDER: Leave a comment at any one of my posts at Wild Rose Reader dated April 20th through April 26th and I will include your name in a drawing to win a children’s poetry book. The drawing will take place tomorrow, April 27, 2008. I have three poetry books as prizes. If you leave a comment at Wild Rose Reader this week, you may win one of the following poetry books:


Oh, Grow Up! Poems to Help You Survive Parents, Chores, School and Other Afflictions
by Florence Parry Heide & Roxanne Heide Pierce

Moon, Have You Met My Mother? by Karla Kuskin

Big Talk: Poems for Four Voices by Paul Fleischman


Recap of the Fourth Week of National Poetry Month at Wild Rose Reader

April 20--Ring/Drum/Blanket Poems Redux
April 21--Crocheting: An Original Poem
April 22--A Poem of Apology
April 23--Colorful Poetry
April 24--Two Metaphor Poems
April 25--Stella, Unleashed: Poetry Book Review
April 26--I Am Looking for a Poem About…#3


Elsewhere in the Kidlitosphere

Poetry in the Classroom at The Miss Rumphius Effect
Sunday:
Books and Reading
Monday: Colorful Poetry
Tuesday: Where in the Wild?
Wednesday: Between Cultures: Part 1
Thursday: Between Cultures: Part 2
Friday: Fold and Bend
Saturday: Counting Books and Poetry

Bloggers Who Are Posting Original Poems Every Day during National Poetry Month
Cloudscome at A Wrung Sponge
Gregory K. at GottaBook
Jone (aka MsMac) at Deo Writer

Bloggers Who Are Posting Student Poems
At Check It Out: White Is Wednesday Full of Poems and Poem Postcard, Anyone?
At A Year of Reading: Simile and Metaphor Poems

Bloggers Blogging about Poetry School Visits
Kelly
at Writing and Ruminating: Poetry school visits--A National Poetry Month post
Liz at Liz in Ink: Lying through our teeth at school
******************************
*Edited to Add
Blogger Interview with a Children's Poet
Linda Kulp has a fine Interview with Bobbi Katz at her blog Write Time

I Am Looking for a Poem About...#3

May I Help You Find a Poem?

It has been many months since I last did an I Am Looking for a Poem About…post. I thought it was about time to do one again. I think that it's especially fitting during National Poetry Month.

Today, tomorrow, and Monday you may ask me to look for a children's poem on a specific topic or subject. I will do my best to find poems for you. I will provide requesters with the titles of poems and titles of books in which the suggested poems can be found. I may have more than one poem suggestion for each requester. I have no idea how many requests will be made. I will definitely search high and low for poems for the first three requesters.


Here’s a link to my previous I Am Looking for a Poem About… and Here Is a Poem About… posts that I have done in the past at Wild Rose Reader.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Stella, Unleashed: Poetry Book Review

Just last week Janet Wong put me in touch with children’s picture book author Linda Ashman. Janet wasn't aware at the time that Linda is one of my favorite authors. I love her books in verse--especially Castles, Caves, and Honeycombs and Rub-A-Dub Sub. I often give these two books as gifts to parents of newborns.

I will write more about Linda’s picture books in verse in the future. Today I want to focus on her most recent book, Stella, Unleashed: Notes from the Doghouse. Linda sent me a copy of the book in the mail recently. I couldn’t wait to review it for Wild Rose Reader!


STELLA, UNLEASHED: NOTES FROM THE DOGHOUSE
Written by
Linda Ashman
Illustrated by
Paul Meisel
Sterling, 2008


Stella, Unleashed is a collection of dog poems told from the perspective of Stella, a canine. It contains twenty-nine poems organized under the following headings: A Bit About Me, Meet My Family, Around the House, Trouble!, Out & About, The Neighborhood Pack, and Final Notes. In this book, Stella tells readers about her life, the family she lives with, her surroundings, and other canines she knows. Stella, Unleashed is sure to appeal not only to dog owners--but to most children who enjoy rhythmic, rhyming poetry of a light nature. There’s plenty of humor in both Ashman’s text and Paul Meisel’s illustrations. Poems and pictures combine to set the perfect tone in this cheerful celebration of "dogginess."

The book opens with the poem Lost & Found in which Stella, who is living in a shelter, describes how she chose a family (with three children) that she wanted to live with.

From Lost & Found

Metal bars.
A cold, hard floor.
No window seat.
No doggy door.

Countless strangers come to call--
I listened,
watched,
and sniffed them all…

But Stella turns away from all the prospective people who might adopt her until…one day she catches a whiff of a young boy who smells of candy, grass, and cake. It’s love at first lick.

A boy knelt down.
I licked his face.
He rubbed my head.
I’d found my place.

That’s how I chose this family.
Not perfect, no.

Except for me.


Stella goes on to explain how she got her name. She informs us about the different members of her family: the boy who is her “best buddy”; the girl who is a “drama queen” and likes to include Stella in her imaginative play; the baby who wails, drools, can’t be trusted near tails--and is “Best when confined to a chair”; the mom and dad who are rather clueless and can’t read Stella’s signals.

She also informs us about the family’s others pets. Stella envies the acrobatic cat that walks on tabletops; pities the poor fish that must swim around all day in a bowl and eat food that’s worse than kibble, and gets dizzy watching the energetic mouse racing around on its wheel. In Dispatch from the Neighborhood, Stella gives us the scoop on what the neighborhood dogs are up to--digging holes in a lawn, getting loose from a yard, stomping daffodils.

There are lots of funny poems in this collection to get kids chuckling. In The Bow-Wow Boutique, Stella explains exactly how she feels about the things that her owners might purchase for her at a store that sells rhinestone-studded collars and fancy dog apparel.

From The Bow-Wow Boutique

But buy that “darling” sweater
with the bows and sparkly threads--
I’ll roll it in the compost pile,
then tear the thing to shreds.


In Prize Poodle, Stella gives her lowly opinion of a prize-winning dog and her owner.

From Prize Poodle

She did not drool or scratch herself.
She stood when he said, “Stand.”
She sat and stayed and (worst of all)
She piddled on command.

Ashman ends the collection fittingly with a list poem entitled At Your Service, in which Stella enumerates the many roles she fulfills as the dog of the family.

Here is the final stanza of the final poem, At Your Service:

Quick to give comfort
Slow to offend
Keeper of secrets
Friend to the end


You can read the rest of the poem here.

Paul Meisel’s illustrations enhance the humor of Ashman’s playful text. He adds lots of warmth and details with his colorful cartoon-style art: He shows Stella romping in the mud with her best buddy, wrapped in bandages by the drama queen who’s playing doctor, over-energetically welcoming a visitor at the front door by knocking her off her feet and licking her face; howling while getting her claws clipped at the dog groomer’s, and snuggling up with children on the carpet at night.

Stella, the dog, is sure to win the hearts of readers--and Stella, Unleashed is sure to delight young children and dog lovers of all ages.

My daughter is crazy about canines. I think I’m going to get her a copy of Stella, Unleashed--because I’m not giving her mine!


Background Information about Stella, Unleashed from Linda Ashman

Linda & Nicky


I asked Linda if there was any information about where she got her inspiration for the book or the writing of it that she would like me to include with the review. Here is what she wrote:

As for inspiration, the book is based on several dogs I’ve known and loved, but mostly on Nicky, a smart and funny black Lab/Australian Shepherd mix. Nicky used to hang out in my office while I was writing, and one day she came in and looked at me with her soulful brown eyes, and I wondered what she would tell me if she could speak. She was 13 at the time, and knowing she wouldn’t be around too much longer, I wrote “At Your Service” as a tribute to her (it was called “For Nicky” originally). After that, the poems kept flowing—I was surprised at how easy it was to think like my dog.

The original collection had 19 poems. My wonderful editor, Meredith Mundy Wasinger, encouraged me to add to it, and to fill in a bit more about Stella’s background and her family (which led to the writing of Lost & Found). I thought Paul Meisel did a terrific job of depicting Stella and her family, and was so touched when I saw he included a picture of Nicky facing Stella on the dedication page. Sadly, Nicky died last May at age 15, but I’m so glad to have this book as a reminder of her sweet, funny personality.

******************************

At Blue Rose Girls, I have one of my favorite sports poems, Analysis of Baseball by May Swenson.

Tricia has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Two Metaphor Poems

A few years ago, I began toying with the idea of writing a collection of short simile and metaphor poems that teachers might be able to use in the classroom to show students examples of ways poets use those figures of speech in their writing. I haven’t done much with the manuscript, It’s Like This, lately. Here are two examples of the metaphor poems I have written for the collection to date.


Galaxy
By Elaine Magliaro

Spun in space

A web of stars…

Fireflies caught

On the black silk

Of a summer night



At Sunset
By Elaine Magliaro

The sun is a golden coin

Slipping through the bright fingers of day

Into the dark pocket of night.



Click here to read some of the metaphor poems I wrote for one of Tricia Stohr-Hunt's Poetry Stretches and a link to a metaphor poem I wrote for one of Laura Salas's This Week's Photo/15 Words or Less Poems posts.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Colorful Poetry

Here are three poems I am submitting for Tricia’s Monday Poetry Stretch--Colorful Poetry.


Green carpets the ground,

Reaches over the hills, blankets the broad valley,

And across the wide prairie, stalks of tall golden grain

Sway in the wind

Singing the song of the plain.





Red is the

Only color for a rose.

Save your buds of cloud white, dawn yellow, sunset pink.

Every rose should be red.




Pink Is the Color of…

A baby’s fingers,
a baby’s toes,
a piglet’s tail,
a bunny’s nose,

a happy memory,
the way
honeybees buzz
on a sunny day,

the scent
of apple blossoms,
spring,
the fluttery sound
of fairies’ wings

the feel of velvet
on my skin,
of ice cream
melting down my chin,

the taste of
cotton candy, too--
and hot dogs
at a barbecue!




Check out Tricia’s post Poetry in the Classroom--Colorful Poetry.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

A Poem of Apology

Say You're Sorry: Write a Poem of Apology

Those of you who read my Interview with Joyce Sidman may remember that Joyce and I invited people to write poems of apology...just as Joyce did for her award-winning collection of poems This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness.

JOYCE SIDMAN

If you take up the challenge and write a poem of apology, please let me know by leaving a comment at this post or by emailing me your poem. I will write up a future post that includes all the poems of apology--or links to the poems--that people have written.

NOTE: You can read two poems of apology in my Interview with Joyce Sidman. One of the poems is from Joyce’s book; one is a poem that I wrote last year.



Here is another poem of apology that I wrote this morning:

My Excuse
By Elaine Magliaro

I am so sorry that I did not write
a poem of apology
for you.
My muse left town unexpectedly--
without a word of warning!
Now
I am no longer a master
of the lyrical line,
the poetic turn of phrase.
I can’t conduct my thoughts on paper,
can’t compose a simile that sings,
can’t write with rhythm or rhyme,
can’t alliterate,
can’t make a metaphor with meaning
AND music.

Please forgive me.
I have writer’s block.
I can’t seem to get past
the loss of my trusted inspiration.
I am bereaved,
bereft,
bothered,
and bewildered.
Please take pity on me
until my muse returns.

Prosaically yours,
Elaine

Monday, April 21, 2008

Crocheting: An Original Poem

Aspiring writers are often admonished to write what they know. More than a dozen years ago I was inspired to write a collection of poems based on my own childhood experiences.

I spent many of my happiest days as a child at the home of my maternal grandparents. Babci, my grandmother, and Dzidzi, my grandfather, owned a small duplex in Peabody, Massachusetts. They lived close to the earth. They had a large vegetable garden behind the house. They had fruit trees on their property: apple, pear, cherry, and plum. There were all kinds of flowers growing in their yard, including lilacs, peonies, hydrangeas, and a giant sunflower. My grandfather tended the garden; my grandmother preserved the fruits and vegetables that weren't eaten fresh in mason jars.

Two of my first cousins lived on the other side of the duplex. The older of the two was my age; her sister was just a year younger. We cousins spent a lot of time together in my grandparents’ yard--especially during the summer. We’d help weed the garden, water the flowers, eat green apples and scallions, pick rhubarb. I’d ride my bike to my grandparents’ house and spend vacation days playing with my two cousins--who were also my best friends.

When Dzidzi, my mother’s father, passed away in 1984, it affected me deeply. Babci, my grandmother, died five years later. I wanted to save my childhood memories of times spent at their home on paper. In 1995, I began work on a collection of poems about me, my cousins, my grandparents, and the rest of my family. The poems take our family through a year at the home of my grandparents.

Here is one of the spring poems from my unpublished collection, A Home for the Seasons, which was written in memory of grandparents. The poem is about me and my cousins and my Babci.


CROCHETING
By Elaine Magliaro

The crowns of the blossoming fruit trees

are pink and white clouds.

We sit under the apple tree,

petals falling around us like spring snow.

Nearby Babci relaxes in the wide Adirondack chair

crocheting an earth-brown afghan

for our summertime picnics.

Her nimble fingers dance

as she hooks and loops

the dark yarn into intricate designs.

From a single strand

she creates a lacy island for us

where we will float

on a sea of soft green grass

near Dzidzi’s garden,

eating ham sandwiches,

crunching homemade pickles,

savoring our summer afternoons.


I posted another poem from this collection last September. You can read the poem, Autumn Fire, here.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Week Three of NaPoMo: And the Winners Are...

I talked about my plans for National Poetry Month at Wild Rose Reader in an earlier post. One thing I will be doing is giving away children’s poetry books to blog visitors who leave comments at my posts during the month of April. Here’s the schedule for the next two children’s poetry book drawings:

Sunday, April 27th: For comments left at posts dated April 20th-26th
Thursday, May 1st: For comments left at posts dated April 27th-30th

And Today's Winners Are...

Cloudscome of A Wrung Sponge, Laura Salas of Writing the World for Kids, and Tricia Stohr-Hunt of The Miss Rumphius Effect. (Cloudscome won Twist: Yoga Poems in last Sunday’s drawing. I think she’s having a lucky streak.)

Cloudscome won Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems


Laura won Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow



Tricia won All by Herself: 14 Girls Who Made a Difference



NOTE: The winners need not email me their addresses. They've won prizes from Wild Rose Reader in the past. I know where they live!


Ring/Drum/Blanket Poems Redux

JANET WONG

Those of you who read my Interview with Janet Wong may remember that Janet and I invited people to write ring/drum/blanket poems--just as Janet and the other students in Myra Cohn Livingston’s master class in poetry did as a writing exercise. (You can read all about Myra’s class in the interview.)

A number of bloggers took up the challenge and wrote their own ring/drum/blanket poems--most of which have been published previously at Wild Rose Reader in a number of different posts. Here they are again...together in one post, which also includes a link to Cloudscome’s amazing ring/drum/blanket kyrielle.
New Poem: In addition, I have a link to another lovely poem written by Linda Kulp. Linda emailed me the link to her ring/drum/blanket poem yesterday. She welcomes comments on it.

If you would care to join the ring/drum/blanket poets, email me your poem or the URL of your poem post. You may also leave that information in the comments at this post.


Ring/Drum/Blanket Poems

You can read Cloudscome’s ring/drum/blanket kyrielle here.

Click here to read Linda Kulp’s poem.


Oh, Brother!
By Janet Wong

The little squirt,
begging for boiled eggs and toast,
circles me like a wrestler in the ring,
bouncing on my bed,
bouncing,
bouncing,
bouncing,
bouncing,
and when I try to hide my head,
he dives under the blanket,
to drum my stomach
until it surrenders
a growl.


The Ring
By Stephanie Franz

She sees his ring

Memories
Her wedding day, the children, the trips, the
first time they conquered a mountain,
the last time they struck a golf ball...
Memories
Soon she will remove the ring
while wrapping him in a blanket of love
His soul will soar to meet his maker
while the drum of her heart carries on their tune

She will wear his ring.


A Poem
By Fletcher Collins

A blanket of silent fog
The glasslike ring of an invisible mast
No need for a drum



A Poem
by Nathan Goodwyn (7th/ 8th grade English)

A drum ring:
a place where
hands cackle together
throwing aside the day's more mundane obligations
as if they were the morning's blanket


The Early Sixties: A Summer Day
By Elaine Magliaro

On an old army blanket,
a rough, khaki-colored island
floating on a sea of sand
at Devereaux Beach,
we sit in a circle…
a ring of friends
playing kitty whist,
drinking cola,
talking about boys, and
listening to rock and roll music…
to the sexy sound of the sax
wafting over us
moaning about love,
to a drum beating
like a young heart in overdrive.


Inside the Fairy Ring
By Kelly R. Fineman

Inside the fairy ring,
awash with silver light,
sprightly dancers caper
on a blanket of dew-dappled flowers.
When grassy pipes and acorn drums fall silent,
all will fade away
to dawn



A Ring/Drum/Blanket Poem
By Tricia Stohr-Hunt

Gunfire
rings out,
day
after day.
Long settled in,
War's heavy blanket
smothers
the drumbeat of
freedom.

Dragon Boat Festival
By Diane M. Davis

Blankets are laid,
zhonghi is waiting
but the drums insist-
booming
bounding
brimming with sound
they call us to
wake the dragons.

We gather in rings
embracing the boats
as monks make magic
with prayers and poems
then paint the eyes, a dab of red
that brings the boats
to life.

NOTE: The ring/drum/blanket poems written by the students in Myra Cohn Livingston’s master class can be found in her book I Am Thinking of a Poem About…A Game of Poetry.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Recap of the Third Week of National Poetry Month at Wild Rose Reader

WIN A CHILDREN’S POETRY BOOK!!!


REMINDER: Leave a comment at any one of my posts at Wild Rose Reader dated from April 13th through April 19th and I will include your name in a drawing to win a children’s poetry book. The drawing will take place tomorrow, April 20, 2008. I have three poetry books to give away as prizes. Two of the books were written by Joyce Sidman, the award-winning children's poet I interviewed for Wild Rose Reader this week.



Remember...if you leave a comment at one of my posts this week, you may win one of these poetry books:


Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems


Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow
All by Herself: 14 Girls Who Made a Difference

Recap of the Third Week of National Poetry Month at Wild Rose Reader

April 13--A Fairy Tale Tune
April 14--Recipe Poem: How to Make a Morning
April 15--Poem-Making (A Review of the Book by Myra Cohn Livingston) and A Poem for Your Pocket
April 16--Lilacs: An Acrostic Poem
April 17--Poetry Book Review: On the Farm, A Ring/Drum/Blanket Poem by Kelly R. Fineman, Ring/Drum/Blanket Poems by Tricia & Cloudscome, and A Ring/Drum/Blanket Poem by Diane Davis
April 18--Interview with Joyce Sidman
April 19--How to Bring Spring: An Original Poem


Elsewhere in the Kidlitosphere

Poetry in the Classroom at The Miss Rumphius Effect
Sunday: A Wreath for Emmett Till
Monday: Reaching for the Moon
Tuesday: Through the Year
Wednesday: Poetry Aloud
Thursday: Mud, Stone and Fossil Bones
Friday: School Daze
Saturday: Animals Abound

Bloggers Who Are Posting Original Poems Every Day during National Poetry Month
Cloudscome at A Wrung Sponge
Gregory K. at GottaBook
Jone (aka MsMac) at Deo Writer

Bloggers Who Are Posting Student Poems on Poetry Fridays in April
Jone of Check It Out: Winning Poem and Third Grade Haiku
Mary Lee at A Year of Reading: Acrostics That Say Something

At Seven Impossible Things
Check out Jules' post Poetry Friday: An Interview with The Poetry Seven (Or, Cutting Loose Over Cutting a Swath). The Poetry Seven are the talented bloggers who collaborated on writing a crown sonnet: Sara Lewis Holmes, Laura Purdie Salas, Tricia Stohr-Hunt, Liz Garton Scanlon, Tanita S. Davis (TadMack), Andromeda Jazmon (Andi), and Kelly Fineman.

How to Bring Spring: An Original Poem

We have finally had some truly fine spring weather here in my neck of the woods. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get out for a brisk walk and enjoy the sunshine and warm air. I have had pleurisy and my ability to breathe normally isn't what it should be...so I thought I'd write about spring in a poem instead.


How to Bring Spring
By Elaine Magliaro

Wash away clouds of gray.
Paint the sky the color

of shadows on snow,
lightly brush it

with strokes of wispy white.
Polish the sun until it shines
like a newly-minted coin.
Summon a bunch of bobbing robins.
Wrap forsythia bushes
in bright yellow boas.
Daub garden beds
with pink and purple polka dots.
Stitch silky apple blossoms
to bare brown branches.
Tell tulips and daffodils to muster

and stand at attention.
Wake spring peepers

from their winter sleep.
Let daylight linger

before the shadow of night arrives.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Interview with Joyce Sidman

JOYCE SIDMAN


I think it's safe to assume that many kidlit bloggers are already familiar with the name of children’s poet Joyce Sidman. Sidman was the winner of the 2006 and the 2007 Cybils Awards for Poetry. Her Cybils are just two on a long list of awards and prizes that Joyce has won for the seven poetry books she has published since 2000. Other acknowledgements—and this is just a small sampling— include a Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Claudia Lewis Poetry Award, a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book, the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award, and a Bank Street Best Book of the Year.

Sidman’s poetry books are worthy of high praise indeed. She is a master poet like J. Patrick Lewis and Janet Wong, two other children's poets I interviewed for Wild Rose Reader earlier this month. In addition to being a writer, Sidman is also a lover of nature…a poet who believes in connecting much of what she writes about to the “physical world.”
Rather than write a lengthy introduction to my interview with Joyce Sidman, you can read about her and her books in posts that I wrote for the Blue Rose Girls blog in 2006 and 2007.

Poetry Friday: Joyce Sidman, Part I
Poetry Saturday: Joyce Sidman, Part II
Poetry Friday: This Is Just to Say

INTERVIEW WITH JOYCE SIDMAN

Elaine: You have said that you began writing when you were young—that you felt “compelled” to write. When did you decide that you wanted to have a career as a children’s poet?

Joyce: I began writing for children after my own children were born, but experimented with lots of genres at first. I’d been a poet for adults, and a friend suggested I try poetry for children. It immediately felt “right.” It only grew into a career when I began to experience some success!

Elaine: Do you keep a notebook in which you jot down ideas for poems?

Joyce: I only keep notebooks when I’m traveling. Usually what I have littering my desk are pieces of paper with notes scribbled on them. Or, when I have a coherent thought, theme, or idea, I’ll type it right into the computer. Writing on the computer really helps me organize my thoughts. My handwriting is atrocious and I can type faster (even though my typing is really atrocious, too!). I do a lot of planning, thinking, and organizing in my head, though, because once an idea hits paper, it changes somehow, takes on a life of its own, loses a little of its promise. The words can sometimes take over and head the idea in the wrong direction . . . this doesn’t really make sense, I know, but to me, ideas are the future—what COULD happen—and words are solid, immutable, alive. Once you “birth” them, you never know where they’ll take you. It’s not always the direction you want to go.


Elaine: Did you receive many rejections letters before your first poetry collection, Just Us Two: Poems about Animal Dads, was accepted by a publisher?

Joyce: Oh, yes, of course—many, many rejections. Most of them came before I had begun to write children’s poetry. I spent ten years, really, floundering about. I had short pieces published—stories, poems, newspaper columns, but the first book took forever.

Elaine: Two of your highly acclaimed poetry collections, Song of the Water Boatman and Butterfly Eyes, focus on nature—the pond and meadow and the plants and animals that live in those habitats. There’s a lot of information conveyed through your poetry and prose in those books. Did you have to do much research?


Joyce: Yes, those two books and many others I’ve written took a lot of research, but I loved it. One problem writers have is how to be productive when we’re not writing well—because of course you can’t make magic every day. Research is so fun and enriching and gives you something to do in those horrible blank spaces. Plus, it’s like a treasure hunt—tracking down what you need. These days, with the Internet, the chase is thrilling because you have the whole world at your fingertips.

Elaine: You say that nature inspires you. You seem to have a real passion for learning about the “physical world.” Have you had this interest in plants, animals, and the natural environment since you were a little girl?

Joyce: My sisters and I spent much of our free time outdoors and went to a summer camp that had unheated, unelectrified wooden cabins. Although my younger sister was the real animal nut (lizards & snakes in the bedroom), I felt a deep affinity for the natural world and its beauty; it filled me with peace, even as a child. Cities make me nervous, and I always gravitate toward green space. My interest in natural science, though, has grown steadily in the last decade or so. Now my favorite part of the New York Times is not the Book Review, but the Science section!

Elaine: You told me before that your most recent book, This Is Just to Say, came out of your work as a writer-in-residence—that it came pouring out of you in a way that other books haven’t. How long does it usually take for you to write a collection of poems? What is the process like?

Joyce: Well, it’s different for every book, but generally I start with an idea, or an image, or an emotion. I have a book coming out next year called Red Sings from Treetops—it’s about color in nature. This book started with the deep thrill that color gives me: a flaming red maple or the soft green of new buds. But an emotion or image is not enough—I have to figure out a “voice” for the book: a way to write it so that it captures that original emotion. I played around with all sorts of color poems, touching on this idea or that, and then retreating when it didn’t feel right. This happened over the course of a year. Finally one spring I looked down at some tracks in the mud, and a line came into my head: “Look down—brown. Deer were here, and a dainty raccoon.” That line isn’t even in the book anymore, but I knew that I’d found a way in, a way of talking about color as though it were alive. After that, the book took about three months to write and another few months of tinkering. I have to go slowly. If I force it, it’s just bad poetry. And I have to give it time to rest so I can look at it with fresh eyes and see if it still works.


Elaine: You’ve done a number of author residencies in schools and worked with children on writing poetry. In Touching the World: The Importance of Teaching Poetry, an article you wrote for The Riverbank Review in 2002, you state the following: “To fully engage myself and my students with the physical world, I turn to poetry.” Would you care to tell us how you feel poetry can connect you and your students to the physical world?

Joyce: It’s a matter of looking and feeling. Looking with all one’s senses: being an observer, a “noticer”. Letting those senses be fluid, and run into one another as they do in nature—letting sunlight have a smell, and thunder have a color. And also to be willing to let all these sensory elements touch your emotions, open up your sense of wonder and joy. The natural world is incredibly complex and astounding. Poetry allows us to plunge into that complexity, without the need to understand, but only the need to appreciate, to behold, to celebrate.

So, I try to get kids outside, to establish a bond between them and the world they pass by every day. Make it personal. Have them speak to the shell they’re peering inside of, or the pine tree they’re touching.



Elaine: I’d like to ask you a question that a second grade student asked me more than a dozen years ago: How come you know so much about poetry?

Joyce: What a great question! How did YOU answer it? And who says we know so much, anyway? Poetry is ultimately mysterious. The thing I love most about it is that I don’t understand it—can’t say for sure what makes one poem more powerful than another, or even WHY a poem is powerful. Ten year olds can write poems that are as breath taking as fifty year olds. The playing field is completely level. That’s why I love to go into classrooms: I feel as if I’m walking into a room of potential colleagues.

None of us knows everything about poetry. You can analyze it to death and still not know. And then a child—who has never written a poem—can come up with a line like “Fear feels like a spider web in my heart.”

Elaine: Do you think that you’ll ever attempt writing a picture book or a nonfiction book for children?

Joyce: Oh, I’ve written many picture books. They’re not very good. I have trouble with plot! I’ve also written novels and one nonfiction book. I would love to get one of them in good enough shape to publish. Some day!

Elaine: Would you like to tell us about any new poetry projects that you’re working on?

Joyce: I mentioned the color book. Also in production are a book called Ubiquitous about survivor organisms, and a book in the Water Boatman/Butterfly Eyes vein about the woods at night. And I’m playing around with some other poetry projects, nothing that has entirely coalesced. I hate the in-between periods, when I’m not settled on anything; they make me extremely nervous. What if I never have a good idea again?? Every writer would like to move smoothly from one project to the next, but that doesn’t always happen. And my husband will tell you that I get very whiney during those fallow periods!


Invitation to Write a Poem


Joyce and I would like to invite readers of this interview to write their own poems of apology as Joyce did for her book This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness. Do you think you need some inspiration? You can read my review of This Is Just to Say here. It includes excerpts from some of the poems in the book. I also recommend reading the funny and touching poems of apology Jone’s students wrote. You’ll find the poems in this post at her blog, Check It Out.

And here, with Joyce’s permission, is a poem from This Is Just to Say:

Brownies--Oops!
By Joyce Sidman

I smelled them from my room:
a wafting wave of chocolate-ness.

I listened for movement,
ears pricked like a bat’s.

I crept down, stepped
over the sleeping dog.

I felt the cold linoleum
on my bare toes.

I saw the warm, thick
brick of brownies.

I slashed a huge chunk
right out of the middle.

The gooey hunks of chocolate
winked at me as I gobbled them.

Afterward, the pan gaped
like an accusing eye.

My head said, Oops!
but my stomach said, Heavenly.

by Maria



Last year, I was inspired to write a poem of apology and a response poem after reading Joyce’s book. Here are my two poems:

This Is Just to Say: A Poem to My Daughter

I have eaten
the chocolate bunny
I bought you
for Easter

a big-eared, brown hunk
of deliciouness
you probably saw
hidden
in the closet
and were expecting
to unwrap and savor
on a flower-filled Sunday

Forgive me
it was bittersweet
and creamy
and melted in my mouth
like snow
on the first warm day
of Spring.


A Daughter’s Response to Her Chockaholic Mother

Mom! How could you???
You know
I love chocolate, too!

You’re an adult
and should have better control
of your candy cravings.
Set an example
for your only child
who also has
a significant sweet tooth.

Next year,
open your wallet a little wider
and buy two bittersweet bunnies
so we can rhapsodize
in a duet
of ooohhhs and uuummmms
and indulge
in our chocolate Easter dreams
together


NOTE: If you write a poem of apology and post it at your own blog, please send me the link. If you’d like me to post your poem at Wild Rose Reader, type it in the comment section or send it to me via email.

ANOTHER NOTE: I would like to express my appreciation to Joyce Sidman for this in-depth interview about her "writing life," for writing wonderful books that connect poetry to the "physical world," and for granting me permission to post a poem from her book This Is Just to Say.

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At Blue Rose Girls, I have the poem Ars Poetica by Archibald MacLeish.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at The Well-Read Child.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

A Ring/Drum/Blanket Poem by Diane Davis

Here’s another fine ring/drum/blanket poem written by Diane M. Davis.

Dragon Boat Festival
By Diane M. Davis

Blankets are laid,
zhongzi is waiting
but the drums insist-
booming
bounding
brimming with sound
they call us to
wake the dragons.

We gather in rings
embracing the boats
as monks make magic
with prayers and poems
then paint the eyes, a dab of red
that brings the boats
to life.

Thanks, Diane, for contributing your original poem and for allowing me to post it here at Wild Rose Reader.

Ring/Drum/Blanket Poems by Tricia & Cloudscome

Two more talented kidlit bloggers, Tricia of The Miss Rumphius Effect and Cloudscome of A Wrung Sponge, have written ring/drum/blanket poems.

A Ring/Drum/Blanket Poem
By Tricia Stohr-Hunt

Gunfire
rings out,
day
after day.

Long settled in,
War's heavy blanket
smothers
the drumbeat of
freedom.

You can read the rest of Tricia’s post here.

Cloudscome decided to write a ring/drum/blanket poem in the form of a kyrielle. Tricia had challenged people to write kyrielles for her Monday Poetry Stretch this week.

You can read Cloudscome’s kyrielle here.

Thanks to Tricia and Cloudscome for sharing their fabulous poems.

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Click here to read Kelly R. Fineman’s ring/drum/blanket poem, Inside the Fairy Ring.